Recently, Switzerland's system of justice has made plenty of negative headlines owing to its Federal Attorney's failures and misconducts, its Federal Criminal Court's internal grievances, the Federal Supreme Court's deficient work as supervisory authority of the former, and the Federal Supreme Court's president's sexist verbal abuse made in the same context. These days, reports spread about yet another dubious story: about the election of judges to the Federal Supreme Court, Switzerland's apex

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... ourt. Criticism against the procedure through which Switzerland elects its judges to its (highest) courts is nothing new, but recent events brought this issue once again to the forefront. The main point of concern is that any hopeful candidate must be a member of a political party represented in parliament: party membership is a de facto requirement to be elected even to the Federal Supreme Court. Federal Supreme Court judgeships -until retirement age unlimitedly renewable six-year terms (Art. 145 FC; Art. 9 FSCA) -are "distributed" among the parliamentary groups according to their proportional representation in the Federal Parliament (so-called Fraktionenproporz). These days, a civil society organisation spread reports about an unforeseen attempt to politicise the upcoming elections. According to these reports, the Swiss People's Party -which is by far Switzerland's strongest party, but does not nearly control a parliamentary majority -endeavours to prevent one of "its" judges' re-election because of his support of judgments contrary to the party programme. Elections to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 38 judges (plus 19 supplementary, part-time judges) divided in seven divisions